Lifetime status isn’t valid for your lifetime, but rather for the lifetime of the program, so it’s silly to make any sort of effort to work towards a moving target.

That being said, if I happen to earn lifetime status, that’s great! A few weeks ago I noticed that I was nearing million miler status with American, and based on my calculations would hit it on my flight yesterday from Orlando to Los Angeles.

So, what happened on my million miler flight?

Well, shortly after takeoff the flight attendants brought a bottle of Krug to my seat, and then about two thirds through the flight, the captain came on the PA to congratulate me for the achievement, right as we were 850 miles out of Los Angeles (where I officially crossed the threshold).

Just kidding, of course. 😉 The flight was unmemorable, and it slipped my mind that this was even my million miler flight until this morning, when I updated my AAdvantage account on AwardWallet and saw my mileage balance had increased more than I was expecting.

My account reflected that I had crossed million miler, and also that I was now lifetime Gold.

As I explained in the last post, American’s million miler program is lackluster nowadays, which is a stark contrast from how it used to be. All miles earned used to count towards million miler status, which was far too generous (rather than just “butt in seat,” flown miles). So given the existing population of million milers I’m guessing it’s tough for American to add substantial benefits to the program, due to how many people they’ve have to grandfather in. But it sure would be nice…

Though perhaps the highlight of all of this was Ford’s surprise. Today Ford gave me a healthier version of a donut (apparently?) with a candle for achieving million miler, so there’s that. Just what I needed after my million miler flight, where I had warm nuts, an ice cream sundae, and those delicious packaged coconut cookies and fig bars. Mmmm…

Bottom line

I’m happy the 35,000 bonus miles posted the same day my million miler status did, rather than 6-8 weeks later, as bonus miles often do. That’s all I expected in the way of “recognition,” and my expectations were met.

Oman Air offers a chauffeur service in Bangkok, so I requested to be picked up at Le Meridien at 5:30AM. I know that was extremely early for my 9AM flight, though I wanted to be sure I had plenty of time to grab pictures of the Oman Air Lounge and take…

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About luckyBen Schlappig (aka Lucky) is a travel consultant, blogger, and avid points collector.
He travels about 400,000 miles a year, primarily using miles and points to fund his first class experiences.
He chronicles his adventures, along with industry news, here at One Mile At A Time.

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